TCB: He who stands at the top of the Food Chain

Canterlot – train station -

"MERCEEEER!" the Sun Alicorn roared in absolute fury as her mane almost turned into pure fire because of her rage.

"Yes?" The Blacklight Virus mimicking a pure-black unicorn stallion with white mane and red eyes also known as 'Alex Mercer' answered with a calm tone as the frothing-at-the-mouth Princess nailed him with a glare of pure loathing.

"What is the meaning of this?!" She demanded furious.

"War." the Living Virus answered simply, making Celestia almost recoil with the pure colloquial tone he used to answer.

"War?"

"Not mine of course, but of you ponies and the humans, and my involvement with it." Alex answered while calmly trotting away until two brave guards moved to stop him.

"NO!" Luna yelled with wide eyes as her magical shield went summoned around the two just a fraction of a second before the Virus' pony tail whipped forward turning into his Whip Fist to cut both stallions in two.

Skriiiiieeee! The metallic sound of the bone-made tip of the whip scratching and then rebounding on the barrier had the ponies present flinch at the high volume it reached.

"Step back." Luna ordered making the soldiers hurry to leave room for the Virus to move.

"What have the humans offered you? I know well you hate them, enough to try and have their whole race go extinct. And almost succeed in doing this." the Moon Alicorn asked while ignoring Celestia trying to silence her.

At hearing those words the soldiers and curious onlookers around the Alicorns and the Elements could not move away as rapidly as they clearly wished as they scampered away, soon leaving a WIDE area for Mercer and the Princesses to freely walk on as the closest group of eavesdroppers was several meters away and behind various barriers raised by the few willing Unicorn soldiers.

"Huhuhu!" the COLD chuckle of Alex in answer to that question made more than one mane or pair of wings get ruffled in primal instincts of guard.

"I am not involved with those apes, nor with the Gaia group, they are just as bad as Blackwatch was if not more, and I bet you have met few of the remaining soldiers of that faction as well," he answered making Celestia herself flinch minutely at the memory.

She remembered well those people, many victims of the pony side had been because of their extreme hate for everything not human and their willingness to hurt whoever stood in the way of their Mission, whatever that was at the moment they moved.

"And while what I did can be seen as me trying to make Humans go extinct, I instead simply tried removing 'the fallacies' of their race, turning them to a shape that would satisfy MY ideals...I just tried erasing their Bad Traits...Sounds familiar, Celestia?"

"I AM NOT LIKE YOU!" the Sun Alicorn bellowed in disgust.

"You sure? What I saw in the memories of Money Bag, of the Price brothers and of Shipper tells me another story." he asked simply.

"He is not nervous or afraid..." Dash muttered.

"He has thousands of minds and lives inside himself, emotions are not something easily escaping his control, especially if he believes he can survive Celestia's wrath." Twilight answered as, to their surprise, the Sun Alicorn had kept silent while violently biting her lips.

"And can he survive an attack from the Elements?" Rarity asked.

"..." at That the purple Unicorn stood silent as she herself worked her brain at full power to answer that question.

"I-I am not like you! The humans we Convert will live! Nopony will suffer from this!" Celestia finally answered, to her dismay though she saw Alex notice the faint, practically-inaudible staggering in her voice she knew nobody else noticed, not even Luna standing right next to her.

"They will live? How? With the complete inability to do, think and say anything negative? Can that even be considered normal life? And what about the ones whose brain shut down from the shock of that? Is being reduced to a vegetable drooling on themselves a good way of living?" Alex asked simply, making the listening ponies mutter between themselves unsure.

"...Something tells me they didn't know of that tidbit of trivia about Conversion. Very bad for you to do this, Princess." he added tutting condescendingly while his 'Princess' held a level of mockery never before heard.

"I-I-I..."

"I have Consumed thousands of psychologists, cultists and mentalists, Celestia. Their combined years of expertise in reading and manipulating psyches almost surpass the years you have been alive...And you have spent more than half that life surrounded by people eating everything you say like a gospel from the Heavens, that had you getting sloppy." Alex thought pleased by the tiny spark he saw in her eyes she so desperately tried to hide from him.

"So you didn't just kill the humans, as you had not the guts to go through a true Eradication...You preferred having their hearts keep beating even if the personality, the Will and the mind simply collapse. They would be alive, but at the same time they will be dead. Let's say that they will just be 'Background characters' in your new, perfect world of Ponies and for Ponies only...Because no Gryphons or yaks, or any other race will come here. Right?" Saying that the Living Virus stopped abruptly to take a step towards Celestia.

And to the ponies' shock, she took one back just an instant later.

"Those races do not deserve this place, yes? Not even the humans do as they are spoiling this world, even if they had earned their place here millions of years ago...Every other race outside Ponies is dirty! Stupid! USELESS!" he said filling his mouth in sharp teeth and again turning his tail in the Whip fist so to threateningly move its barbed head around like a scorpion.

"SILENCE!" Celestia finally yelled with her voice booming like an explosion.

"THOU HATH SAID TOO MUCH! TWILIGHT!" reflexively falling into Old Canterlotian dialect, the Princess turned to look at her precious student and at the other Elements.

"Aaah, yes! Miss Sparkle..." Alex, completely unimpressed by the Alicorn's rage, said with a colloquial tone that seemed to make the area's temperature drop of several degrees.

"W-What?" the young mare asked as Celestia's order died immediately as soon as she perceived the Virus' attention move to the Unicorn.

"The brilliant mind that came up with the Conversion Formula...Prized student of Celestia and the highest score ever registered in that little school for 'Gifted' ponies your Princess herself endorses..." he said with a small smile of malice.

"Many consider you to be the second coming of Starswirl, you know? A Pony that will unravel the mysteries of Magic still going unanswered...I bet you only cared about creating the formula itself and the possibility to make history because of it, pleased to know that someday you too will be in one of those books you love and have stallions and mares read about you and be inspired to do great things. After all, you DID create something that helped a poor, violent race know Harmony for the first time and survive a great crisis...The few 'bumps' can easily be forgiven as soon as the Converted Humans learn to live with their Bad Traits suppressed, nobody needs to live a life filled in rage or violence after all, they will surely recover and become 'Normal Ponies'." Alex said clapping his hooves a little.

"Don't listen to him, Twilight! just-" Luna hissed with narrowed eyes.

"Just use the Elements, that is what you are going to say." the Virus finished saying for her making the Moon Alicorn grit her teeth in anger.

"Please do so and act like the attack dogs you and our friends are! Please use them, the Elements of Harmony, Equestria biggest asset." Mercer said as he walked away of few steps and then stopping to address the Princesses and mares behind him without turning to look at them, instead fixating his eyes on the still-smoking ruins of the demolished royal castle.

"Every pony I killed died for a reason, Celestia. I saw what they did in the open and in secret, things even you and your sister know nothing about; all just little extras I gathered while I was looking for what I really needed, but still, I deserve being hit full force by your 'Secret Weapon' since even the Barrier you are using against the humans is useless against me...But..." he said, again chuckling darkly and sending the listeners on edge.

"But your precious Elements better be able to fully destroy me." he turned around rapidly, nailing every mare with a cold gaze that had them shrink a little.

"Applejack..." he said making the farm mare hiss at being addressed.

"You think Mac will finish fixing the third step of the stairs in the barn today? You tripped rather badly on it yesterday." he asked sounding honestly curious and making AJ go wide-eyed.

"H-H-How?" she demanded shaking.

"I saw and I heard you whine about it, and he tends to let his guard down when around Miss Cheerilee...Same going with dear little Bloom, I would just need to Consume the pretty teacher to get both, and after them, Granny Smith." he said simply.

"YOU MONSTER!" AJ roared barely restrained by Twilight's Magic to stop her from attacking Alex.

"Yes, yes I am. And tell me...If the Elements WON'T destroy me...What will then stop me from going after them and THEN you?" he asked showing his front hooves turn into sharp claws.

"N-N-No! Keep Bloom and Mac out o' this!" she replied sounding way more submissive this time.

"Glad to see you understand." the stallion answered pleased before focusing on a new target and ignoring AJ pleas.

"Dear Rainbow Dash, instead...How's Scootaloo? Still trying her tricks with her scooter? Would you actually be able to tell if she is the real one you are talking with or if it will be me mimicking her before I attack you?" he asked.

"You...You...You..." the Pegasus hissed with moistening eyes.

"And you, dear miss Rarity Belle…"

"No! Not Sweetie! Everything but not her!" the Fashionista immediately begged.

"You catch up rapidly, very good! What about you, Pinkie? Would you throw a party knowing that one of the pony present may be ME waiting for your dear sisters to get too close? Or maybe I will go for the Cakes!"

"..."

"What about you, Fluttershy?"

"I-I-I..."

"Even Discord is appalled by you helping them doing this, I don't care about the humans and openly admit my dislike for them...But you always professed your love for all living things, what is so different about humans to not be worthy of a second, third or even fourth chance like your dear Draconequus friend was?"

"ENOUGH!" Luna roared in fury.

"Yes it is...I guess it's high time I move to my next target, I wasted even too much time here." Alex replied nodding along the Princess' words as he walked away.

"You are not going anywhere!" Twilight hissed as she gathered magic in her Element, to her dismay her friends instead were taking slightly longer than usual to do the same.

"They know what will happen if the Elements fail to erase me completely, Twilight. You may be Celestia's beloved attack dog blindly obeying to everything she wishes and ask, but they have other things to worry about...Or will you too be sad if I Consume...I don't know...Spike or Sunset Shimmer? Or even your new student! What's her name? Starlight?" he said with a deranged smirk, making the mare pale considerably.

"They speak and act so similar, a-and yet he is the polar opposite of my sister, he is the antitheses of Celestia! Her Corrupted version!" Luna thought shocked as she watched the Sun Alicorn and the Virus Pegasus closely as Twilight behind her snarled in fury.

"DIEEEEEE!" With an unhealthy roar of the Purple Unicorn the Elements of Harmony went shot with unusual fury towards Mercer that simply smirked in victory as he seemingly waited for the blast to hit.

In truth, as soon as the light-show really caught him one of his back hooves (weighted by super-dense biomass) stomped down making a huge chunk of the floor under him collapse letting the Magic pass over him as he disappeared underground.

"STOP HIM!" Luna ordered as her horn lighted-up eradicating the street in front of her in a blast of blueish light.

"He is escaping through the sewers!" Celestia, by now almost literally blinded by her own rage, barked as she launched herself to the chase underground uncaring of everybody else asking her to wait.

"Find him! Find him!" Luna in the meantime screamed madly making Sun and Night guards hurry-up to comb Canterlot in its entirety.

"...He knew there were sewers under him, as he talked he kept searching for a good spot to break through for his escape...Fighting us or the Princesses was never in his plans to begin with..." Twilight whispered in realization.

"W-W-We attacked him! We attacked him and failed!…SWEETIE!" Rarity screamed in horror as she tried to run back towards Ponyville.

"W-We'll go together! We will stop him!" Twilight tried saying.

"How!? He can turn into everypony he eats! And you said you can't find a way to tell where he is because he becomes who he eats completely, Magic too!" Dash answered as she looked in apprehension towards their small town.

"Applebloom, Twi! Dat monster wants tha kill Applebloom! He will if Ah help ya! A-A-Ah'm going home, Ah can't lose her and BigMac too..." AJ said while looking about to puke.

"That's what he wants! he wants us broken, the Elements may really be able to stop him, that is why he tries to have us break apart and do not use them!" Twilight tried saying.

"He is making good points to convinces us to do it, Twilight." Fluttersy admitted with a low voice.

"H-He won't touch our families, I-I won't let him!" the purple mare answered.

"How?" Pinkie asked making her friend snap her mouth closed unsure about how to answer.

"I'll find a way. If not me, Princess Celestia will, I am sure."

If only she could actually see the troubled expression flashing for an instant on her own brother's face as she said that, she would actually grow even more unsure about it.

Meanwhile – with Celestia -

"Where are you, coward?! Show your face!" the Sun Alicorn ordered as she kept seeing the tail of Alex sharply turn the corner just in front of her.

As soon as she had followed him she had seen him grow wings to turn into a Pegasus and fly up out of the sewers, moving the chase to the streets of Canterlot and showing that even if slower than her own Alicorn speed, he had actually studied how flying worked for their species as she could not make sharp turns like he could as she had not claws to plunge on the walls to force the direction like he could, making her waste valuable seconds just to readjust her trajectory.

But now she had pinpointed him well enough for a bout of teleportation, and to her satisfaction she managed to appear right in front of him, only for the Living Virus to redirect most of his Biomass on his front hooves to create his old Hammer Fist, with the added weight of the super-dense biomass making him plunge vertically down the ground and inside a small alley demolishing a great deal of the street and upturning various dumpsters in a giant cloud of dust.

"Where is he?" Celestia hissed as she scanned the area from above before descending and sending her Magic to clear the alley of broken pieces of road and garbage and getting in answer only the angry squeals of few rats scurrying around.

"He is not underground...Then...Where is he?" she muttered as she looked at the street filled by ponies running away scared of the explosion Alex' landing produced.

"He could honestly be anyone of them...Damn him! DAMN HIM TO TARTARUS!" Celestia boomed as she flew away to return to Twilight and Luna just in case he tried to attack them once she was distracted.

In truth one of the rats that had been screeching about the Princess arrival had not run away once she left but decided to follow her movements until she was out of its field of vision.

"...Is she gone?" one of the rotten apples in the dumpsters asked using the bite mark it had as a mouth to speak.

"Squeak!" the rat answered in indignation.

"Right, sorry." the rotten apple answered sheepish as it transformed into Discord while the rat returned being Alex in Pegasus form.

"Better, thank you for the help. Everything went according to plan?" Alex asked once stretched his wings while his fur turned pale red and his mane mint green.

"The soldiers that had been Converted recovered their Bad Traits and made minced meat of the guards holding them in cages, as we speak the last cargo ship of forcefully Converted Humans are making their trip to the accorded areas for the Humans to recover and return to their families, at the same time the guys pretending to be Gaia followers are leaving behind marks and traces to suggest they did it, they have even left something to make the others thing few ponies went Humanified and that the Magic of Equestria killed them immediately after." Discord answered sighing.

"Good enough. Do you think Celestia will look into Money Bag's affairs by herself or will she need some prodding to do it? You want her to finally see what is happening, but our need to have them fear me and Gaia enough to not move war to humans may back-fire and keep her focused only on me instead of cleaning house."

"Just in case I will nudge her a little. Who was that Pegasus?" the Draconequus asked as Alex finished forming a Cutie Mark of a sun covered by clouds on his flanks.

"A meteorologist mare, she wanted to see if she could make the Conversion Serum rain on the human world by polluting our own rain clouds, a soldier shut her down and the Russians had been experimenting on her ever since. Since she was half-dead once they were done they gifted her to me just in case I needed an extra identity to blend-in. Real nice on their side." Alex answered with a female voice that made him wince in annoyance.

"I see." the other said grimacing in discomfort.

"There is a war ongoing, niceties have been cast aside."

"I can tell…Listen..."

"Yes?"

"You won't really attack their families...Right?"

"I needed them to lose focus, you said the Elements depend on their Users and their mental health, I wanted to see if I could make them weak enough to survive a blast and try create a form of resistance to them." Alex answered.

"You can do that?" the other asked surprised.

"I have no idea, and I didn't want to risk being hit yet, as for now we still have a lot to prepare before I can risk an experimental shower of condensed happy thoughts. But I am pleased by the fact that agitating them, threatening and scaring them (and angering them in Twilight case) showed nice results all the same. You have been blasted by those mares a couple times, did you see any strange thing?" Alex asked.

"...The light was dimmer...And the colors paler!" Discord said with wide eyes.

"Yes. Those things are dependent on the "emotional health" of the users, I scared them and put in their heads enough doubts about their powers to influence the resulting shot, if I can come up with something acting like a lightning rod for Magic, even should I be blasted, I should be able to redirect it somewhere else...that if the inherent 'Good' of some minds I Consumed won't shield me just the same." the Virus answered pleased.

"And you dodged it, I didn't know you could do that." Discord said.

"You never tried? In my case it moved in a straight line so I just dropped under it. You can teleport."

"...I was too surprised to dodge." he admitted almost ashamed.

"Aaah! Deer in the headlights, I get it." the other commented nodding.

"Small things aside; I think it will be better if you stay low and act as a normal Pony for a couple of days, we'll let Gaia act up and let Celestia and Luna go through your victims' stuff to finally learn about the dark deeds going on under their nose." the Draconequus said sitting on an upturned dumpster.

"Okay, anything else?" Alex asked as he started taking altitude to fly towards the penthouse HQ in Manehattan.

"There are two mares I want to introduce to you tomorrow, they will join our little quest."

"We can trust them?" Mercer asked with narrowed eyes.

"We can, we can. I assure you." the other replied smirking.

"So be it." the Living Virus answered nodding as he zoomed away at high speed.

"Now...Let's see what dear Shining Armour wants to talk about, must be something pretty dirty if he is whispering my name like that! I can smell some secret deal!" Discord muttered rubbing his paws before popping away like a soap bubble.

The next Day – Money Bag's office – National Bank -

Celestia was sitting behind the excessively-rich-looking desk of Money Bag and fervently looking through a high stack of paper folders she evidently took from a hidden safe behind herself if one looked at the completely destroyed wall behind the desk and at the pitiful remains of said safe that had been utterly torn to pieces.

"Shipper-Co...Price Twins…Shipper-Co...Price Twins..." the two names kept popping-up more and more the longer she kept reading, to the point that whenever she read those her Magic started lashing-out a little breaking a piece of wall or uprooting part of the parquet on the floor.

"I found what Shipper was hiding in her office," Luna said with a low voice as she slowly entered the demolished office.

"And what about the Price Brothers?" Celestia asked with a void tone.

"..."

"What about them, Luna?" she asked again.

"They weren't exactly as bright as Shipper and Money Bag were in hiding their business, they didn't even try to come-up with alternative names or codes to cover what they were doing."

"So?"

"I...Me and my guards found a list of names...Of Ponies and Recently-Converted Humans helping them...The Incident was not an incident...It was staged, from the beginning." Luna said with a low voice.

"The Conversion of New Orleans that started our WAR with the Humans WAS STAGED!?" Celestia screamed with her wings opening wide just like her eyes.

If not for Luna's fast acting summoning a shield around her sister to contain her burst of anger, the building and probably a big chunk of the territory around it would have been swallowed whole and turned to ashes by the thick explosion of flames that surged from the Sun Alicorn's body that momentarily turned the small barrier into a furiously-swirling ball of fire lasting several seconds.

"I HAD TO SPEED-UP OUR PLANS! I HAD TO HURRY-UP CONVERSION WITHOUT GIVING TWILIGHT ENOUGH TIME TO STOP THE CONVERTED FROM TURNING BRAIN-DEAD! WE GOT A WAR WITH PEOPLE NOT AFRAID TO KILL EACH OTHER AND SO HAPPY TO USE THAT "TALENT" AGAINST NON-HUMAN TARGETS FOR ONCE! AND ALL FOR MONEY!?" the voice coming from between the flames was FAR from the usual motherly warmth it was known for, in fact, Luna was actually afraid Celestia would finally go Nightmare from the looks of it.

"Not only money." the Moon Alicorn said calmly.

"What else?" Celestia asked tiredly, looking spent after her moment of anger as even her usual ever-flowing mane hung limp around her head.

"As Discord said, cheap servants for rich families AND the confiscated lands and properties of humanity too were nice incentives to do this." Luna answered sighing.

"Somepony else is doing similar affairs, isn't it? I am starting to think that I don't actually know my ponies as much as I believed to..." she asked in dread.

"It is possible that others are trying to exploit our Conversion to appease their greed, yes, but others may try to speed things up for even darker reasons instead,"

"You mean those who openly dislike humans?" the Sun Alicorn asked.

"Many of our ponies mistrust other races, Celly; Gryphons, Dragons, Changelings...Even Crystal Ponies are looked at in slight mistrust, those ponies are out there." Luna answered sighing.

"But they are just a small fraction, right? Not the majority!" Celestia almost begged.

"It takes only one rotten apple to ruin the whole basket, sister." the other answered hugging her sister.

"They are nice people, they can be artists, poets, painters, designers, architects, dreamers...I saw what their ancestors left behind and their theories. They have not Magic, but that never stopped them."

"But they are not ponies...And for some, that is the only flaw needed..." Luna admitted in defeat.

"So we are not that different?"

"Mostly, they are a little more perverse when it comes to Mating...But I can't blame them, I guess that for hyperactive minds like theirs, the Standard Positions do get boring after a while." Luna quipped smirking.

"Luna!" Celestia gasped shocked, but finally cracking a small smile.

"I know, I know. We should not be joking considering the horrors this war has unleashed, but if we give-in to despair, even worse tragedies will come...What happened with the New-Colts first and foremost." the Moon Alicorn said sighing.

"...Their Down Syndrome reacted quite badly to the Conversion..." Celestia muttered shivering.

"What I don't understand though, is where Mercer fits in all this..." Luna commented to herself, too engrossed in her thoughts to hear her sister.

"What?" caught off-guard by the thing the Sun Princess asked.

"Mercer, why is he even here?"

"He may be helping the humans,"

"Unlikely, he had tried to exterminate them once, not too long ago."

"If what he said is true, he tried to do what we are doing now...Converting them..."

"So why attacking us? Is he angry because we are interrupting his second try?" Luna asked.

"Maybe, but he targeted Money Bag, the Price Twins and everypony else in this business of Converted Humans."

"And he destroyed our castle." the Moon Alicorn added bitterly.

"Yes, but somehow he talked everypony into evacuating the place, other than minor wounds, nopony died...then why he choose these four and who worked for them to finally show himself?" Celstia said unsure.

"I refuse to believe he did it out of the goodness of his heart." Luna said growling.

"His methods are brutal, yes. But he also must have a mission, what we have been told showed that he was not just a mindless killing machine, he can plan and manipulate and use whoever he can reach for his goals...Consuming it's just a way to reach his goals faster."

"We had no news of other deaths matching how Money Bag died, Mercer either did it in a very covert way leaving no trace behind, or he started with them to kill us."

"But then, why THEM? They are strictly linked, one of them can be excused as chance, but he actively hunted them all down, and with Money Bag being the last one of the small triangle of slave sellers he found, he even made his death a spectacle to present himself to us...why?"

"Mercer has no attachments we know of in either our world or the Human side, he is a living Virus that likes to impersonate people and ponies. He is not something that somepony or somebody would love unconditionally." Luna said unsure.

"...Even calling him a 'He' instead of 'It' is forcing it..." she also added with a lower voice.

"Alex Mercer isn't even his real name, we are talking about a Virus humans created and called 'Blacklight'...Mercer was just one of its creators the creature then started imitating..." Celestia added.

"For a while it believed to be Mercer, if we believe what we were told." Luna confirmed.

"Ehm...Your highness?" a new voice asked meekly from outside.

"Yes, Miss Bon Bon?" Celestia answered with a gentle smile.

"Me and...Well, Me and Lyra may have found something about Mercer..." the young mare said unsure as she entered.

"Already? Very well! I love when results are fast to come!" Luna said excited as her wings too fluttered in happiness.

"Please elaborate," Celestia asked once calmed her sister down with a light clearing of her throat.

"He supposedly has a sister and-"

"A sister?" Luna asked in surprise.

"Yes, Princess. Dana Mercer, his younger sister. She willingly took the Conversion Serum three weeks after the events of New Orleans, but we have lost every trace of her several weeks ago, right after Gaia made its appearance, nopony has seen her ever since as she failed to register her ID during the according dates." Bon Bon answered.

"His sister?" Luna muttered.

"He must still consider her part of his family...T-The list!" Celestia said gasping in horror.

"He was looking for her through Shipper's memories! Since he didn't find her name in there he moved to the Price Brothers!" Luna added equally shocked.

"And failed that he went to the pony behind the whole thing, Money Bag. We need to see if they really got her, otherwise we'll have to find who took her away and why...I hope neither Gaia or the Anti-Human ponies were found her first," the Sun Alicorn said as she hurried towards the door.

"Miss Bon Bon, you and Miss Lyra keep looking for Mercer and be sure to keep us informed of his movements,"

"Yes, Princess!" the mare answered immediately.

"What about us, sister?" Luna asked as she moved to follow Celestia.

"We'll check if those three got Miss Dana, done that if we didn't find her we will FINALLY look more deep in the secret affairs of our beloved Ponies, blindly believing their being pure and innocent won't cut it anymore. We also need to monitor Gaia, their recent visit to one of our 'camps' for red IDs and the massacre of the guards there remembered me that we are dealing with ruthless enemies as well, just because regular soldiers are not attacking us anymore it doesn't mean we are out of trouble."

"We also have to keep and eye on Mercer, for now he seems to focus only on finding his sister, once found her Harmony only knows what his next actions will be...He is not afraid of the Elements either, they too will be in danger." Luna added.

"Twilight...What are your plans, Mercer? What do you want from us?" Celestia muttered shaking in suppressed anger at even just thinking her beloved student to be in danger.

Meanwhile – with Alex – Manehattan – Tea with Discord -

"The plan went without an itch, perfect execution!...Minus all those dead guards, I would have preferred that not happening." Discord said sighing as he watched Alex turn human to sit on the couch with his legs resting on the short table in front of it.

"The Bad Traits were needed for those soldiers to break free and take the other Converted with them back to human territories, that they also used the suppressed anger to take revenge was an extra we knew would have happened." the Living Virus answered shrugging,

"Sadly true. Either way, Celestia and Luna are also finally looking deeply into the secret affairs and money games taking place here and on Earth, between you, Gaia and this they will be sufficiently distracted to leave us move to the final Phase of our Mission." the Draconequus said crossing his arms.

"The Human leaders I talked with have finally agreed to our plan, they are now mass-producing their own Conversion Formula, when the time will come they will start the controlled Conversion, meaning that you will need to be there to give back the Bad Traits like we promised. How long before the planet will be completely covered?"

"Five to six months, the shelters are almost ready and so are the countermeasures and the defensive perimeters around the parts of Equestria they are moving here. Remember, once the planet has been fully Converted we'll have barely two weeks before Celestia makes her final move, the ponies can move here, but we can't let her go through with her plans fully." Discord answered.

"I get it, I get it. We won't let her play with that shiny tree of hers, I got that part to memory. Next move I think I will pay a visit to each Element of Harmony separately, just to keep them on edge and see if I can have one or two openly promise to never cross me in exchange of me not Consuming every pony they hold dear. A chain is just as strong as its weakest link." Alex answered.

"Just don't go overboard."

"I know what I am doing."

"I hope so, we have almost done moving the Converted back to their homes, we can't fail now."

"And we won't. So? Those two new recruits?" Alex asked.

"Ah, yes! They were a nice finding, they apparently had a similar idea to save the ones that had been forced to change, they only lacked our sponsors and equipment, and yet they managed to save quite a lot of Converted. Once explained to them what we were doing and why they immediately asked to join, and actually demanded to meet you in person," Discord answered motioning to two mares to join them, one ice-blue and the other light-brown.

"Meet little Trixie," the Chaos Entity said with a flourish.

"Nice to meet you." Trixie said nodding.

"And..."

"Blacklight." the other mare said somberly.

"Dana." Alex replied nonplussed.

"So you are still alive." Dana Mercer said coldly.

"Things like me don't die, we are worse than cockroaches." the Living Virus commented simply as Discord and Trixie looked at each other in discomfort at the coldness now filling the room.

"..."

"..."

"Soo...Milk or honey in your tea?" Discord tried saying with a weak and forced chuckle.